Be the change you want to see in the world!

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There is an overwhelming desire in the Pakistani consciousness to “CHANGE THINGS.” If things are not changed, we will complain. About everything, and anything. The problem usually is that the fiercest proponent of change is just… fierce. Yet it the person who works, not the person who is just fierce, who make the change – and deserve the credit for it.

Karachi is often found on the forefront of this “I can complain, but the work oughtta be done by [insert blame target of choice]” marathon, among other cities/places that we are not concerned with at the moment. For an instance, see the tirade on this thread by a reader who stopped an otherwise rather good effort from developing – and disappeared after being challenged with her own ethical questions.

Caution: From now on, this conversation might not be directed at you. Don’t imagine it is. It’s strictly for the nagging day-dreamer who wants THE WORLD to change before they change into a new shirt.
Now for the world-changing minded Karachi people: Up there in the piccy is a little tutorial that might help us understand why our efforts to change the world from the confines of our classrooms and coffee tables and computer tables might not be working. Further soul tutoring and searching and healing can be done at the lovely PravsWorld site.

Good luck with changing yourself and stopping asking everybody else to realize your dream. (Don’t others have work to do?) And oh yes, while you’re at it, read the book (or google the term) “7 Habits of Highly Effective People.”

Testimony

That’s my side of the belief, and personally, it’s worked for me. I rejected 7 Habits as mumbo-jumbo self-help (prejudiced ass!) until I read it last year. And it’s at least given me a perspective. Part of the inspiration behind effort like HelpPakistan was this philosophy. Just a note: this website was complemented by an on-ground work, otherwise a website alone doesn’t help either! After sitting in front of the computer for a day coordinating others helping, I thought, well, why don’t I do ground work myself? I joined the thousands of KHI ppl in PAF museum relief camps a little late, but lesson learnt. The guys in our team created a camp-mgmt and truck-management model that later turned out to be similar to what IBM developed during the Tsunami.

When I started working in the tent, we started with a team of 3, and grew to 150 in about 4 hours – and managed our area so well that we were encouraged by the camp managers {army ke banday} to “recruit” aimless wanderers from all over Base 2 and “train” them. (The sweetest team members were assigned to recruit the lost sheep and train them.) Within four hours, we were advising the beleaguered(sp?) camp managers and had our area sorted out like a dept store from thehopeless mess that it was.

Note: HelpPakistan.net and its related ground work Operation Labbaik (team of up to 150 ppl) were covered by Radio 1FM (RJ Omer Bangash), with an upcoming TV review this month (hopefully).

This example is just to show that: 1/ KHI Metblog writers aren’t unpatriotic because they have not been able to solve the Kashmir problem in response to innocent reader requests. 2/ THIS IS HOW TO DO IT!

Edit note: Hyperlink missing in phrase “this thread” added now.
Gotta thank Danesh Dubash who forwarded this image to an e-group of we which we both are a member.

Zubair and Mona, stay as you are. When you’ve come around, I’m willing to listen. Right now, it’s a hike for me.

Shiraz, fair question. I guess a complaint is when you blame and whine and do nothing about it (actually, you get fierce, and think that’s the best you’re doing). I considered this question myself; the earlier draft of this post was useless sarcasm written to vent, and deleted (I use that technique to clear the mind). In this post, I have attempted to show a way forward by refering to an axiom, a useful book (which is proven to have changed many people, though of course not all people on earth can be changed), and a personal example. That’s not going to change the world, I am sure, because things don’t ever change people. Ultimately, it is people who change themselves, and these cliches (aka truths) merely help those who are open to change.

BTW, as for technology and websites – in the TV interview mentioned above – I did note that technology alone doesn’t work for people who do not have a framework for action. Nothing can compensate for the lack of leadership.

As to what I do and don’t do, it’s not my place to comment. The work and any beneficiaries must speak, now or in future.

YoYo:
Perhaps it’s confusing because it’s for a certain “target market?” But I am not sure what you meant exactly.

If there is anything that needs de-vaguing, please point out, and I will correct it. I always have second thoughts onwhat could be edited. :)

Ali: i will be replying to your e-mail address. If you added a real one when commenting on this post. If not, simply post another comment with your real email addy which will be visible to only me, and i will reply there.

man i have seen shitty sites before but this pravsworld.com definitely takes the cake.
and Noman , yes , like everything else Mario Puzo wrote , this is a beatuiful line taken from
The Godfather . good thought indeed , Mario.

:-) Did you note quotes? Any how I should have put Puzo’s name. My bad. I am sorry Sir. Plagiarism is not allowed at all. Did you really think that I would put such a famous line under my name :-). Never hate your enemies, it affects your judgement my friend ;-)

Ramla:
Such a simple, straightforward, basic AND TRUE message in your post, i cannot imagine how it would draw such personal and vicious responses from mona and zubair? – do you guys have some sort of history…..?

No history if it were my wish. But I don’t mind these folks. :)
BTW I got this picture in a mail thread that was discussing the cartoon controversy. The topic developed in to “how to bring abt change/create influence.” Usually fwd’s are very preachy, but this one was by a man who is doing his best to change things. (Check out Danesh Dubash’s website linked to above.) And so I “bought it.”
Hope you like it and share with others.

so what the fuck if it is cliche, i do NOT get people like zafar..they same to have a ten inch agenda shoved up their hineys and they are getting off on their narcissistic selves… what is he doing as a collective..oh no wait lemme guess, the world is an extension of chaos, or eventual entropy is inevitability, or even more what people like him say is god?? who god what god? man i would have loved to have said at one point that i understand the “other” point of view, but screw the gentleman behaviour, you and the likes of you zafar are just plain pathetic with your wannabe existentialism and being a wanker….
mona you need cock badly, really badly
now, as far as the blogs and help pakistan is concerned, i know a lot of very reliable people who i am not willing to place reference to, that actually got a lot of help fro these sites as they were able to visit them and figure out which direction to direct their funds towards…so the point of people not visiting does not come under consideration..even by single nano second…
at least she is doing whatever she can, in her own rightful place, irrespective of whether it is for her own good or not, it is helping people…
so kudos to you ramla..i dont know you as a person, i dont know whether you are a wanker or a stupid woman who is doing this just to get recognition, irrespective of that, its a good effort….
and to the shocked ones..
grow up for gods sake!!

so what the fuck if it is cliche, i do NOT get people like zafar..they same to have a ten inch agenda shoved up their hineys and they are getting off on their narcissistic selves… what is he doing as a collective..oh no wait lemme guess, the world is an extension of chaos, or eventual entropy is inevitability, or even more what people like him say is god?? who god what god? man i would have loved to have said at one point that i understand the “other” point of view, but screw the gentleman behaviour, you and the likes of you zafar are just plain pathetic with your wannabe existentialism and being a wanker….
mona you need cock badly, really badly
now, as far as the blogs and help pakistan is concerned, i know a lot of very reliable people who i am not willing to place reference to, that actually got a lot of help fro these sites as they were able to visit them and figure out which direction to direct their funds towards…so the point of people not visiting does not come under consideration..even by single nano second…
at least she is doing whatever she can, in her own rightful place, irrespective of whether it is for her own good or not, it is helping people…
so kudos to you ramla..i dont know you as a person, i dont know whether you are a wanker or a stupid woman who is doing this just to get recognition, irrespective of that, its a good effort….
and to the shocked ones..
grow up for gods sake!!